Nick's Collingwood Bulletin Board

An ABC Sport investigation has discovered that Carlton's Little League team was coached and managed for five seasons between 1973 and 1977 by John Dennis Morice, a prolific paedophile who was later convicted on numerous occasions for the sexual abuse of schoolboy footballers he coached.

Under the VFL's (now AFL) rules for the Little League competition, clubs were required to select at least 100 boys per season, meaning hundreds of Carlton players were coached by a sex offender whose crimes were once described by a County Court Judge as "depraved, sickening and repugnant".

ABC Sport has spoken to a number of former Carlton Little League players who were sexually abused by Morice, who died in 2016. A lauded, popular and successful coach, Morice led the Carlton Little League team for more than 100 games, steering the Blues' Under-11s to multiple grand final appearances.

Morice received convictions for the sexual abuse of boys in 1978, 1981, 1991, 2004 and 2006, the latter being historical cases to address abuse that victims had taken decades to report.